“All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All,” comes from a hymn written by Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander in 1848, and some years back James Herriot used the various parts as titles for wonderful books about his early years as a country veterinarian.

 

Quite a few movies over the last decade or so have featured computer-generated creatures including winged horse-type things, unicorns, assorted dragons, huge dog-like beasts and small bird-like oddities.

 

I’ve yet to see anything that comes close to matching the wonders of God’s creation. 

 

Whenever we have difficulty mentally coping with the volume of ugliness in life, paying attention to the marvel of God’s everyday creatures can lighten that load.

 

One article author, who suffers from debilitating long-COVID and who can’t do the hiking and biking that she used to do, discovered that. Even with her limitations, she and her husband bought a camper and are spending time in nature. Although she is mostly lying down or sitting in one spot, she says just being there is helping her cope and have hope for a positive future.

 

God’s beautiful, clever and sometimes wacky concoctions are worth appreciating. And how amazing is the fact that after millennia of the trials experienced by humans and earth itself after the fall of humanity — however closely it followed the story of Adam and Eve — nature still produces beauty and grace in large and small settings. Both the Old and New Testaments speak of what could be called original loss.

 

“We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now, (as we humans) wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies,” St. Paul says in Romans 8:19-24. 

 

The Prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse of what creation will be like once the corruption is ended, saying in Isaiah 11:6: “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”

Significant changes also are noted in that chapter: “The wolf and the lamb shall pasture together, and the lion shall eat hay like the ox.”

 

Animals did not originally need to eat each other. “Survival of the fittest” and food chains were not in the picture. It is consoling to realize nature will someday be rescued and renewed by God in the way He wishes.

 

In the meantime, it is, of course, good for us to help creation do as well as it can. Creation can serve as a means for God to begin to stretch our hearts in service and to learn to appreciate His creativity and His attention to detail — and perhaps even His sense of humor. Consider the moose and anteaters and walking sticks … a lot of what He has designed is quite amusing.

 

We discover in nature that God likes variety (flowers), that He is mysterious (Why is the tiny “racing car bug” neon blue and red?) and that He is playful (otters and baby bird explorers). Even the fungi that help decompose dead trees include big orange and cream shelf fungi, tiny red-topped mushrooms and even some that look just like bellybuttons. It is all so very fun.

 

With our daily burdens, disappointments and anxiety, we need that level of soul-healing from God’s more straightforward creation — His creatures who live their lives without duplicity, pride, greed or other sins. 

 

Creation — trees, frogs, whales, raccoons, robins and everything else great and small — simply lives within its surroundings, without ambition beyond getting the essentials for life according to God’s plan.

 

We can become more attuned to God’s plan for ourselves or perhaps be more relaxed with letting Him take charge as we enjoy His bright and beautiful creation.

 

May God bless us and all His creation!